Hold the door! How using revolving doors can help reduce carbon emissions

You may have chanced upon a report (or news on that report) on your social media feed saying that the Earth has already warmed 1 degree Celsius (1.8 degrees Fahrenheit) since the 19th century. Big deal. So what, it’s just one degree, you might think. Sure.

Except that report by the United Nations last year also disclosed the dire consequences of this reality which include, but are not limited to, extreme heating (that could possibly wipe out humanity), water shortage (that again, could cause populations, human and otherwise, to cease), and ironically, flooding (that could literally wipe out humanity).

We all know how this is happening. Excessive greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions consist of mostly carbon dioxide trapping heat in the atmosphere causes this phenomenon.

According to the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), total annual greenhouse gases emissions reached a record high of 53.5 Gigatons in 2017, an increase of 0.7 compared with 2016.

“In contrast, global GHG emissions in 2030 need to be approximately 25 percent and 55 percent lower than in 2017 to put the world on a least-cost pathway to limiting global warming to 2°C and 1.5°C respectively,” said the report.

While steps are being done to reduce carbon emissions by many countries through diplomacy despite fallout in the Paris Agreement (Hi, US), did you know that you to can help by simply using a revolving door?

Revolving doors by nature are built in such a way that at any point during rotation when a person comes in, the doorway stays close. This means that while it lets in air (hot or cold) it also keeps it inside, reducing energy use.

However, due to the inaccessibility of the revolving doors (they’re not PWD-friendly), and preference for new technologies like automatic door opening systems, not all people make use of it.

In 2006, MIT students studied the impact of using this type of door to reducing carbon emissions. They have estimated that if everyone in their school building used its revolving door, it could save 14.6 tons of carbon emissions annually, equivalent to the amount of energy needed in heating five households.

This may seem like a small amount, but when multiplied across all revolving doors worldwide, it could be a significant figure that can make a significant change.